Quite the encounter! (For Zaku)

"Oh my gosh... they actually have it..." Tatum expressed as she stared at something she did not expect to see for a very long time.  "I thought they discontinued it... I thought it was so old that no one wanted to play it anymore... but it's actually here..."

Before her stood a Cabinet game known as Mecha-Pilot, a game that simulates, as one may have guessed, the feel of operating inside of a mecha.  It was designed with two cockpits facing each other, a screen in front of both.  It has a single player, tournament style, story mode, but obviously it's real draw was the one on one competitive play.  It also had something known as mission mode, which would allow for two player co-op if they chose to play with.  It was an old and probably ancient game, but it's play value has withstood the test of time.

"I'm... playing..." she announced to no one in particular as she quickly claims an seat and pays the desired credits.

You're going to be lost to this game, aren't you?

"FOR GLORY!" She cried out as she picked the mecha that was clearly based off of a magical girl.

Heh, alright then, I'll spot for ya! Mercury offered.  He may be a back seat driver in Tatums head, but he may as well enjoy the game as well!  Besides, having two sets of eyes is clearly an unfair advantage that they can get away with!

Zaku had been at the arcade for a while now, playing her game...and it basically was her game, no one else played it, or else no one else was any good at it because her name was the only name on the high scores table, well her initials anyway ZZ, and she was already finishing up the mission mode for the third time that day, it was always fun since the missions changed or the way you had to play them changed depending on what mecha you used, and this time she managed to not just place on the board but beat her own high score.

Then something weird happened as she got to the main screen once more, she heard another voice talking and she leaned over a moment to see another girl hopping into the next seat, her cowlick beating her to looking over, actually her cowlick seemed to lean forwards towards the new girl and the tip wriggled a bit as if it was sniffing her, Xaku for her part didn't even seem to notice the cowlick being odd "O..oh..h..hello...w..where.y..yo going..t..to play...m..mission mode? Zaku?" she asked, she wasn't exactly expecting to be playing with or against the person but she thought it would be polite to at least ask.

Tatum had seen plenty of strange things in her life.

She had seen a strange Clown who has a bizarre tendency of making her ever the bit slightly more mad.  She had seen shows where the concept is sumo wrestling meets bikinis and water pools.  She had seen video games about Digital Monsters invading the real world through the internet.  She had seen a game where it is set to night time even when she's playing during the game.

She had seen Mercury appearing from deep within her, his appearance seemingly based off of a Sailor Senshi of sorts.  She had seen a magical girl and a strange super hero dog come to her aid as she fended off a fiend with a massive cleaver!

She had seen her father wear a bunny suit... nothing will out strange that for her...

Except a long piece of hair seemingly sniffing at her.

... Dad... you've been outweirded... she thought to herself.

Look alive, you have company! Mercury stated, calling attention to the surprisingly timid one talking to her.

She took a minute to process what the girl was saying.  Such stuttering made Tatum convinced that she was speaking another language.  Still, at least she was being civil, so Tatum should reply in kind.

"... Zaku?"  Or try to...

She shook her head, mentally chided herself, then returned with a smile.

"I didn't think someone was here!  I was gonna do mission mode, but if you're looking for an opponent then I'm willing to battle!  It may have been three years, but I'm sure that I still have the skills of my youth!"

Are you seriously trying to pass yourself off as an old war veteran?

Shuddup, lemme have my fun!

The girl wanted to play against her? Zaku wasn't sure that was a good Idea, she had logged so many hours on this game...she had learned every little nuance and maneuver that was possible with every mech to the point where she could tell what they were about to do from just the start of their animation loop, she had been accused of being psychic a few times due to it from the one few people that did sometimes watch her. But the girl seemed to want to do that and she didn't want to be rude.

"Umm..o..okay...i...if you want Zaku can fight you..o..on here. Zaku" she said as her cowlick seemed to be satisfied that the girl was real and seemed to nod before returning to a resting position, though every time she said her name it seemed to snap to attention but then it would relax again soon after, it even wriggled about a bit when she stuttered as if trying to help her think.

"And...umm...m...maybe....maybe after..y..you and Zaku c..could f..fight..c...co-op? Zaku?" she asked seeming to shrink a bit worried she would say no or that she wouldn't want to game with her after the versus match

"Co-op, one-on-one, I'm always ready!" She offered with a grin. "But no crying if you end up suffering a humiliating blow!"

Tatum had clocked quite a number of hours herself, being a master of Hoshi Kikai Senshi and knowing how to control the battle field very well. While she hasn't played in three years, she was certain she could manage. Her instincts were remembering how the controls worked the moment she climbed onto the cockpit.

For my first move, I'm going to open up with my strongest attack! Let's see if I can catch her off guard!

You're opening up with the Heart Beam? Shouldn't you save your best moves for when you need them?

It's called studying your opponent! You can't get a win if you can't get a feel for your enemy! Otherwise they'll rule the field with your butt!

Well... best of luck then. Mercury thought as he waited for the payoff. He was was certain something hilarious was going to happen this time.

Zaku nodded a bit as she picked her mecha, it was the one no one every picked because in the games universe it was the most basic solider like one, but Zaku had learned a lot of tricks with it, and using it to play made you rely more on skill then the stats of the mecha, it only had some basic weapons as well, and it's specials where simply things that most players could handle, the thing was you had to use them all correctly.

At the start of the Battle she seen a bean heading right at her and she leaned the mech, rather then move the whole thing she just had it lean to the side to just barely dodge the attack, she then started moving and opening fire with her SMG, at this range it was not going to hit with all the shots, but the best thing about this mech was one of it's abilities was to call in ammo. so ammo wasn't an issue for her nor was worrying about power levels since she couldn't use power faster then her mech could make it due to the limited energy consumption of the Mech.

The battle was a long one but that's Because Zaku had to drag it out, her powers required set up and time, the whole time though she was on the run from her opponent dodging and weaving to prevent getting hit, every time her special came up she used it but apparently to no effect as far as her opponent could see. but eventually Zaku started to fight back, slowly but surely she would take a few shots here, a melee swipe there, but never staying to fight for long, and this running around continued on with her narrowly dodging each attack and each blast from her opponent.

but eventually she stood in the middle of the map where there was no cover So...sorry..b...but Zaku wins..." she said as she activated her third ability and suddenly from the sky and from all the edges of the map a swarm of mechs started to flow in, each one was a copy of Zaku's mech, each one was equipped in the same way. The advantage this mech had, it's special abilites, were all meant to work in a group and to make that group, but you had to do it right, bring out numbers that someone couldn't deal with, and to do that you needed to not die. Zaku had manged both. and now there was no way for the opponent to find her mingled in with the crowd as she was, Tatum would have to kill every mech on the map to find Zaku and the whole time every single one of the mechs there was trying to kill her, each one attacking, and maneuvering to dodge and they were staying out of each others way as well.

the mecha she picked was strong but could it fight an army? and army that, if she didn't deal with it quickly, would only continue to get reenforcements?

Okaaaay, this one has guts! she thought to herself, seeing how her opponent dodged her opening attack with just a minor dodge. That put her in a bind. Most others would have made more a of jump to either side. If it was to the left, they would have been hit by her beam crossbow. If it was to the right, they would have had to deal with a fast moving floating mine. If it was above, she would have just charged forward to try and strike them when they landed. One way or another, she would have gotten in a few shots.

But this one was a pro, having made it a point not to give her the leeway she needed to cause her hit and run strategies.

More than that, time would pass and she was slowing beginning to realize the level of skill she was dealing with.

So is it safe to say this one always plays the most basic one because of the challenge?

Mercury, it takes skill to use any of these mechs! I've made Hoshi Kikai my home mech, and I intend to see her through! She'll screw up eventually. Once I get a clear shot in, it's a Heart Beam right up her-

"So...sorry..b...but Zaku wins..."

Then came the nightmare. The third special that would make this a true test of skill and deciet, the reinforcements (or as fans of the game like to call it, Kage bunshin no Mecha).

Shoot! This is bad, she's already mingled in! Tatum thought as she started to work on mowing down the reinforcements. It was a futile effort. The more she struck down, the more others came at her to take the fallens place. This was an insane battle.

So, any bright ideas? You're running out of Ammo, and at this rate, the ammo crate power ups are spawning fast enough for you to restock!

Well, if I'm going down, I may as well pour my everything into it! Time to do something phenomenally stupid!

She decided not to worry about the entire group. It was better just to focus on what's in front of her. The goal? Make a random guess and hope that she finds her target in the entire mess! With any luck, the one she needs will either need more hits to take down or will dodge more often than the others! She only hope that this was the full extent of the tricks up her opponents sleeve!

North! she mentally announced as she charged northward, hoping to run into her foe this way whiles striking down any others who got in her war path.

"now...to bait the trap..." She thought to herself as she activated her ammo drop special, aiming it to land far away from her, it was a two fold trap, it should make the other player she was over there, and if the other girl was low on ammo she would move towards it, "orders....given..." she said as she entered orders for the NPC soldiers to follow, and they started to spread out to prevent Tatum from hitting more then one of them at a time with her larger area attacks. The funny thing was Zaku was keeping her distance now but before she had charged right at Tatum, though the girl had missed her and then dashed into the large group of copies.

"Target confirmed...Elimination Commencing.." she said to herself losing herself in the game as she switched to her back up weapon, a Missile launcher, several others around her switching with her, and they all fired seeking missiles at her, others around her tossing a mix of frag and flash grenades to stun her and cause more damage while yet more moved in on the ammo drop to make it look like it was being guarded she had to sell the trap after all.

An ammo drop? Seriously?! I don't like this set up, not one bit...

Do you trust your skill enough to get through with out it?

The answer came in the form of a mad dash towards the ammo drop.

And that's a hard no, isn't it?

I can't even get off my Heart Beam without that ammo drop! It's dangerous and risky, but I just need one shot. One shot to end this!

And you're gonna gamble it on that ammo crate?!

Even if it's a slim chance, I'm not letting go of that hope!

Even so, it was not easy. With so many foes slowing her down, stunning her and whittling away at her health, she had to make sure that the hit counted. The one in a million shot and she was willing to gamble everything for it, even if it meant loosing a lot of health in the process. She just needed one shot...

Zaku seen the other player heading towards the ammo drop, apparently she was ether desperate or she knew it was a trap and was triggering it anyway...or both...she wasn't sure, though there was also the chance she didn't even consider the option that it might be a trap in which case this worked for Zaku. She sent an order to another unit to leap up at the opposing mech, to make it look like she was trying to stop her, the grunt had a melee weapon at the ready to make the attack with, however she also sent an order to two other units, they used the jumping first mech as a blind spot and followed after him, the one behind the lead jumper had his sub machine gun out and ready to fire once Tatum killed or evaded the first, and the last one had it's bazooka ready for when she killed or evaded the third.

As that action went on Zaku herself was moving with a grouping of others like her getting close to the ammo and laying mines near and on it, though they were using a screen of other units to block her line of sight so she couldn't see what was happening, "I only have to lower her health enough for my attacks to kill her...and this should do it..." she thought to herself as she moved away from the blast radius the others staying to open fire if she got by the three that where trying to attack her, and to work as a screen so she couldn't see the trap laid on the ammo box.

Everything seemed to work like clockwork.  She saw the three leaping at her.  Evading the first one was easy enough, as was striking him down with her beam crossbow.  The second surprised her, whittling her down quite a bit more before she managed to strike that one down, which left her at point blank range for the bazooka.  It was amazing how quickly one could get overwhelmed when they had no ammo left.

Still, at least she managed to get past this attack, however badly damaged she was.  She wasn't ready to stop.  She had to give it her all.

She decided she couldn't afford to fight anymore.  She just needed that ammo crate and one lucky shot.  So instead of fighting, she tried to power through, pushing her way through the enemies as they continued their assault.  She only took time to strike down those that were directly in front of her.

Besides, they were all guarding it so feverishly.  IF it's booby trapped, wouldn't it be best to set it off while they were still close?  Was there a chance the any traps would interfere with them as well?  Not that she could find out.  The moment she was in range, she found herself in the middle of various explosions.  Landmines... this girl was putting everything into stopping her.

Wow... she's a pro.  IF this was her plan all along, then she has me in her sights.  I think I can keep going until she was out of ammo, then we'd both be fighting for it, but at this rate, I'm down to less than half of my health!

Less than a quarter, actually...

I kinda don't feel ashamed!  I held out this long, and that's good by me.  Time to take that crate and see what happens!  I bet she has her attack at the ready too!  My HeartBeam versus whatever she has!  This is it!

With that, she reached for the ammo crate, ready for whatever was to come!

Zaku watched the the girl bullheadedly charged through the ranks of Units between her and the trapped crate, his health was being whittled down little by little and she nodded to herself as she checked her own ammo reserves, seeing she was a bit low she activated her resupply and two of the units near her reloaded her ammo, making her at full, this Mech was all about support from others of it's kind, no one ever bothered to learn about it's abilities though. Abilities that only got stronger the more copies were on the map, and during this whole ordeal she had been constantly calling in more and more reinforcements. The map was basically flooded with the copies of The mecha she chose, the Front line Beta, it had the most forgettable name, and was one of the most generic looking Mecha on the roster but it had a lot of hidden strengths.

"Close the noose..." she said quietly as she then sent an all out attack order to every Duplicate on the map, each one opening fire with what weapon they had equipped, and due to the positioning of the ammo box she laid down Tatum was in the perfect spot for a massive crossfire focused on her, there was actually no escape, fire was coming from all possible directions, SMG's, Missiles, Rockets, Grenades, some small energy weapons, none of it overwhelmingly powerful on its own, but there were hundreds of the units on the map all firing at her focused and taking careful aim to hit her. and she was already at low health, and worse Yet Zaku was mixed in among them, indistinguishable from the rest as they all poured fire down on her heavily outnumbered and out maneuvered mech "Strength doesn't mean much...when you only fight alone..." she said as she pulled the trigger on her special attack, a large anti Mecha missle launcher, which was locked onto her at the moment and it fired, Zaku moving from her spot after firing so that she couldn't be pinpointed by the direction it came from.

The trap was sprung, and with no way of escape. Still, Tatum got the ammo crate. Her Heartbeam was ready for one quick fire. She was smirking to herself as she decided to pick a direction go fire at.

Except then she saw the kind of trap that was laid.

... she... is... good... now what do I do?

Make Grins proud?

She could have fired off the Heartbeam. If she was lucky, she could have hit Zaku's mech, powering through all of the mechs in the way. She could have gone down fighting.

Instead, she chose to push the Taunt button.

"From My Heart to yours!" Hoshi Kikai announed, doing a magical girl pose in the process. Then came the onslaught of firepower just before her animation came to an end. The health bar dropped immediately to zero.

A worthy way to accept your defeat! Mercury announced, Though I doubt that would be funny enough for the clown prince of double u, tea, eff.

"Well!" Tatum cried out as the "Continue?" screen appeared. "You... played me... like a lyre! Well played!"

The attack worked, and Zaku seen the girl starting a taunt as the attacks came in, she could have attacked in that time, the only reason to do that was that they had ether gotten angry at their lack of ability to do anything, or they were sad that they had lost, both were things that Zaku was worried about. and as the screen declared her the winner she heard the girls voice come from the other side of the machine and her eyes went wide a moment at the fact that she didn't sound mad.

Zaku then peaked around the side of the arcade, her cowlick drooped a bit like it was sad and she had a worried look on her face "Y..you mean..y..your no...not mad..a..at Zaku? Zaku" she asked sheepishly, the small girl shrinking a bit in anticipation of the other girl being mad she lost, it had happened before. Though as she talked no doubt Tatum would notice the cowlick would wriggle about when the girl stuttered, and every time she said the work Zaku it seemed to spring to attention for a moment, But after her question it seemed to rest in the shape of a question mark as the girl was only barely peaking around the side of the machine at Tatum.

Though after a few moments the cowlick seemed to move on it's own once more and seemed to sniff at Tatum again, it shenanigans apparently unnoticed by the girl it was attached to as the hair seemed to scoot back to her and return to the question mark shape.